Simon Pearson

Simon Pearson was an American outlaw of the Wild West who served as the butcher and camp cook of the Van der Linde Gang.

Biography
Simon Pearson was the son and grandson of whale hunters, and he initially wanted to follow in their footsteps, but whale popularity had declined by the time he left school. He went on to do a short stint in the US Navy (during which he was stranded for fifty days on a ship struck with plague) before moving to the American West, where he got into trouble with some men who wanted to shake him down; however, Dutch van der Linde rescued him and recruited him as his gang's cook and butcher. He was known to be loud and jolly, and he loved to talk about his Navy experiences, even giving his fellow outlaws Navy rum to drink. He became depressed as the gang declined, and he left the gang in 1899 before the situation could get worse. He later settled into a happy life by running a general store in Rhodes, Louisiana, getting married and keeping a photograph of his old gang close to his counter.